Comparison of Cognitive-emotional Dimensions of Personality in People with Psychiatric Disorders with Normal Individuals

The effect of cognitive-emotional factors of personality on identification and treatment of psychiatric disorders is important. The aim of present study was to compare cognitive and emotional dimensions of individuals’ with psychiatric disorders with those of normal individuals.
This descriptive-comparative study was carried out in 2013. Participants consists of 90 individuals afflicted with psychiatric disorders (addicted, depressed, anxious patients) referred to Rahvar counseling center in Northen Khorasan province and a control group with 30 normal individuals that were selected by convenience sampling. Data was collected by “Temperament and Character Inventory” (TCI-56). The content validity and also reliability is previously confirmed using Cronbach’s alpha. Data were analyzed by SPSS/18.
There were no significant differences in self-directedness dimension between groups. In self-transcendence dimension and cooperation, the mean score of individuals in all three groups were significantly lower than the normal group. There was significant difference between addicted, anxious and normal groups in perseverance dimension. In novelty-seeking dimension, the mean score of the addicted group compared to depress and anxious group was higher. Moreover, the score of harm-avoidance of anxious group was significantly higher than the one on in the addicted and normal group. In dimension of reward-dependence, the mean score of addicted group was significantly lower than the normal group (P There were significant differences in the cognitive-emotional dimensions of personality among addicted, depressed, anxious, and normal individuals. It is recommended to evaluate the role of cognitive-emotional dimensions of psychiatric disorders patients. Measuring each sub scale can serve as a valuable tool for clinicians as it enables identification of the psychiatric disorders patients’ personality profile